The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) (originally known as the Non-Custodial Parents Party) is a minor political party in Australia.[1] The party has members in all states and territories of Australia. It supports less government control of many aspects of daily family life. In particular, it puts forward a number of policies seeking changes in the areas of family law and child support.

The party is registered with the Australian Electoral Commission as a political party.[2]

The party’s web-site states that the core policies centre on the issue of family law reform, emphasising legislative changes in order to enshrine a child's natural rights to a meaningful relationship with both parents, and legal and procedural changes to ensure that the Child Support system is fair, equitable and aimed at fulfilling its primarily goal, that being to support the children.

The policies are primarily aimed at assisting non-custodial parents, grandparents and spouses of non-custodial parents.[3] This is particularly with respect to those parents who have either not been granted contact with their children or who have been adversely affected by the child support legislation.

The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) was formed in Australia in 1998 by Andrew Thompson and other concerned citizens.[1] The original name of the Party was the Non-Custodial Parents Party. The party was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) as a political party on 12 January 1999.[4][5]
Andrew Thompson remains the Party Secretary and the Registered Officer of the Party.[6] John Flanagan became the Deputy Registered Officer of the Party in 2003.[7]

The NSW State registration was subsequently allowed to lapse after the 1999 NSW State Elections.[31][32] This was primarily because the NSW State Electoral Commission uses an optional preferential voting system. Also, state electoral commissions in Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT use an optional preferential voting system [33] for the Legislative Assembly.

Optional preferential voting negates the political impact of small parties such as the NCPP. Whereas smaller political parties such as the NCPP have more of an impact if the preferential voting is compulsory [34]

Federal registration was retained because the Australian Electoral Commission uses the compulsory preferential voting system for the Federal Elections.[35]

Since the 1999 NSW State Election, the Non-Custodial Parents Party has provided candidates for all federal elections. The Non-Custodial Parents Party has fielded candidates in the 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 Federal Elections and also ran a candidate in a 2002 Cunningham Federal By-Election.[36]

The NCPP fielded eight candidates in the 2001 Federal Election. This included two Senate candidates for New South Wales: Andrew Thompson and Annette McKeegan.[37] There were also six candidates for seats for the House of Representatives: in Bennelong,[38] Eden-Monaro,[39] Lindsay,[40] Macarthur,[41] Parramatta [42] and Richmond.[43] All seats were based in NSW.

In 2002, the Non-Custodial Parents Party contested the 2002 Federal By-Election for the then vacant Federal seat of Cunningham (near Wollongong). John Flanagan ran for the NCPP and received 556 votes, representing 0.83% of the total vote[44]

The NCPP also contested two New South Wales House of Representatives seats: Cunningham [50] and Parramatta.[51] The candidates netted 1,132 first preference votes, representing 0.01% of the national vote[52] and 0.03% of the NSW votes.[53]

In 2006, the Australian Electoral Commission de-registered all minor political parties. The NCPP was one of the nineteen (19) minor political parties de-registered [54]

This was because the AEC had considered that the names of some of the minor parties were becoming too similar to those of the larger parties. Therefore, it was decided by the AEC that the names of all minor political parties were to be reviewed in a "blanket" de-registration process [54][55]

This review did not directly affect the Non-Custodial Parents Party as any conflict with another party's name was never an issue. However the temporary de-registration did provide an opportunity for the NCPP to consider a name change.

As part of the re-registration process, the Executive of the NCPP subsequently requested that the name of the party be changed from the Non-Custodial Parents Party to the present name of the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) - abbreviated to NCPP(EP). This was done to better reflect the party's emphasis on the issue of equal parenting as one of its key issues.[56]

On 28 August 2007, the AEC re-registered the party under the new name.[57]

In the 2007 federal election the NCPP(EP) ran eight Senate candidates. The States contested were again New South Wales,[58] Victoria,[59] Queensland [60] and Western Australia [61] – with two candidates in each state. Nationally the party received 6,385 first preference votes, or 0.05% of total vote.[62]

The NCPP(EP) also contested two House of Representatives seats in the 2007 Federal Elections. They were Cunningham [63] and Macarthur.[64] Both seats were located in New South Wales. The candidates received 795 first preferences votes representing 0.01% of the national vote[65] and 0.02% of the New South Wales vote.[66]

There were also two House of Representatives candidates. They were for the seat of Cunningham [69] and for the adjacent seat of Throsby.[70] The seats contested for the 2010 Federal Election were all in New South Wales. The two House of Representatives candidates received 2,835 representing 0.02% of the Australian vote.[71][72]